An 11-year-old Venezuelan boy, identified as Andrés in reporting and as J.R.C. in federal court records, was taken into custody along with his father when ICE arrested the father outside their El Paso home in April 2026. The father, whose Temporary Protected Status had been terminated, was sent to an adult detention facility while the boy was classified as an unaccompanied minor and transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Although a stepmother who lived with the family applied to sponsor him, she withdrew her application after lacking a required taxpayer identification number, and he was never released to her. After about three months in government custody, Andrés chose to self-deport to Venezuela to reunite with his biological mother, but the government did not tell her when or where he would arrive, leaving him stranded on the side of the road until she found him.